I would also have loved to have seen Gwendolyn Brooks witnessing Barack Obama's inauguration.

Here's an excerpt from Gwendolyn Brook's Wikipedia page:

Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks (7 June 1917 – 3 December 2000) was an American poet. She was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1985...

In addition to the National Book Award nomination and the Pulitzer Prize, Brooks was made Poet Laureate of Illinois in 1968. In 1985, Brooks became the Library of Congress's Consultant in Poetry, a one year position whose title changed the next year to Poet Laureate. In 1988, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame"...

-snip-

Here is an excerpt of Gwendolyn Brook's poem To The Diaspora

I could not have told you then that some sun
would come,
somewhere over the road,
would come evoking the diamonds
of you, the Black continent--
somewhere over the road.
You would not have believed my mouth.

When I told you, meeting you somewhere close
to the heat and youth of the road,
liking my loyalty, liking belief,
you smiled and you thanked me but very little believed me.

Here is some sun. Some.
Now off into the places rough to reach.
Though dry, though drowsy, all unwillingly a-wobble,
into the dissonant and dangerous crescendo.
Your work, that was done, to be done to be done to be done.